The Internet Minute

Just a quick post to share this riveting infographic from CNET...

Some things jump out at me...

• This is an enormous digital footprint that we are leaving.  Do we truly know where our information goes?

• The potential for a "paperless" society is increasing...I would truly love to see that.

• We spend a LOT of time doing nothing.  The Internet is now our new past time...instead of things like exercise, playing with out kids, etc... I am guilty of this as I check my email at basketball games.

• We are never truly out of contact with others.  I remember the day when hoops practice was over and I had to call my mom for a ride...on the pay phone for 10 cents.  Now my kids has an iPhone.

• The way we get our news information has changed (aka the loss of newspapers in print) but timeliness and relevance have increased dramatically.  The entertainment industry is next.

• Regardless of their profession, my kids will also be software engineers and app designers. 

What else pops out at you?  Would love to hear ideas...

Learning to Run (Google Tip)

At home I have a laptop, my son's, which began to really slow down as all PCs do over time.  It's the nature of the beast...or at least the PC.   Viruses, malware, extensions running over themselves, and only-true-techies know what else.

There's a point, like a vacuum cleaner, when it can only take in so much junk that it stops working.

So how is this a Google tip, right?

• Run Chrome.  Step one.  Simple, easy and malware resistant.

• Clean up the malware, viruses, registry errors and other junk using the right software.  I always recommend Malwarebytes and CCleaner.  Both are entirely free, take up little hard drive space and only run when you want them.

• Clean your computer using Windows Security Essentials.  It's free virus software and runs shallowly on your computer.  Nortons and McAfee scan everything, take up valuable space and just clog up the system.

• Disable Internet Explorer.  Yes, I said it.  DISABLE IE.  For some reason, IE runs all the time even when it is not open.  Try it.  You can always turn it back on.

Back to my son's laptop.  Over the course of the last two years, it began to slow down, slow down even more, to the point of no one wanting to use it.  Startup was close to 10 minutes.  Internet access was in minutes.  Sound familiar?

Then the dreaded "Virtual Memory Too Low" message.

The idea to uninstall Internet Explorer struck me.  I don't use IE and it runs constantly.  Unfortunately, IE does not lend itself to be uninstalled.

I disabled it.  Turned it off.

Interesting thing happened.  The computer works like brand new.  Brand new.  

THINK

I recently began a graduate course on cyberbullying for re-licensing and as a refresher.  With how quickly technology moves, keeping up to date is entirely a challenge.

As I would hope, the course is really getting me to think/re-think about how I operate as a media specialist, tech educator, and general nerd, particularly as it relates using social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc...).

My epiphany...the WOW moment...resulted from a comment by one of my classmates (the course is entirely online, btw...you should know me well enough by now).  She suggested that we need to adopt some tried and true methods that we use traditionally with students and children to technology education.

Great suggestion and it brings me back to something I said to my own son yesterday.

"You need to think before you say something."

Why can't we apply this to posting and texting as well?


Let's take what we know already...the THINK method...and apply it to social media and communicating digitally:

Funny thing is, other people had this same thought.


THEN, we need to constantly remind our students or children that once our comments are posted, emailed or texted, there will always be a record.  Always.

Nugget of wisdom from another classmate:

"Do you want your grandma to read it?"

Angry Physics

[A quick follow up to my previous "Life's Just a Game" post]

Just one more way to incorporate games into the class...teaching physics (vectors, gravity, etc...) using Angry Birds.

There are some great articles out there detailing the actual physics of the game.

Some other games and suggestions:

• Madden, NCAA, any sports related games to teach statistics, averages, etc... Strat-o-matic sports games are quite possibly the best, most advanced statistics-based sports games available.  The traditional board game with player cards is math-intensive and awesomely fun for sports nerds.
• Dungeons and Dragons...yeah, I am truly THAT nerd...is a great game for storytelling, story arcs and developement, character development, roleplaying and is quite math intensive.
• I have had some great success with with games like Candy Crush Saga, Bubble shooter and other pattern recognition games...patterns, colors, shapes, prediction, and planning strategies.
• Minecraft and Eden...Worldbuilding games are all the rage with kids.  Teachers are using them in highly creative ways.
• Sooooo many more...

This is just gentle encouragement that "free" time or structured "game" time during the day doesn't have to be mindless, unproductive fun.  Game time can and should be considered at least as productive, and possibly MORE so, than normal seat time activities.